Not everybody was good on a great team. Some players were just riding coattails. I know this thread will go everywhere. So some ground rules: -- talk only about the truely great teams such as Ajax 1995, Brazil 1970, Brazil 1982, Denmark 1986, Real Madrid 1950's, etc. -- the players should also be a starter or a sub who played signflicant minutes. -- we are not talking about one tournament wonder. For example, Grosso did so well for Italy at the WC 2006. He should not be considered riding the coattails. He earned his WC medals.
Easy. Zidane in the France team that won the '98 world cup. Zidane in the Juve side that reached two successive CL finals Aside from his Euro 2000 performance and his goal in the '02 CL final, Zidane is comfortably the most acclaimed passenger in the history of the beautiful game. [/Teso]
Marquitos was a possible weak link in the great Real Madrid sides. He wasn't a full-back but he would leave gaps for the left wingers. Elegant on the ball though. Brazil 70 had its fair share of weak links. Felix has been mentioned but Brito and Piazza were weak CBs (the former being one of the worst I've ever seen) and although Carlos Alberto and Everaldo were good offensively, they were weak defensively. Brazil 82 had Serginho (the ball was square when he played ) and their defence of Leandro, Luisinho, Oscar and Junior. The full-backs were of the generalised Brazilian tradition.
I was thinking of Serginho when I started the thread. Valdir Peres the keeper was pretty bad too. Roque Júnior was pretty bad for the 2002 team on paper. He actually played well during the tournament. In theory, he is not qualified for this thread.
one that comes to mind is Guiseppe Signori on the Italy 1994 side. He was the leading scorer in the Serie A at the time, and supposed to be their "go to" guy coming into USA '94. He never did anything, and Italy was one penalty shot away from winning the WC.
Sacchi played him as a left-winger, a position that he hadn't played in since the 80s. Sacchi used Daniele Massaro as the "go to" man. Signori did assist in Dino Baggio's goal against Norway and Roberto Baggio's goal against Spain. That reminds me, Massaro and Nicola Berti were weak links in Italy's 1994 WC team. Massaro, despite a brilliant CL Final with Milan, lacked the killer instinct of the great Italian strikers. He could have scored a goal in the first half of the final but the shot went straight to Taffarel. Berti is clearly the biggest donkey to have played for the Azzurri.
valdir perez? bad? i think he was average. and leandro was a Center Back and side back at flamengo!!! Oscar is one of the most gifted brazilian defender who had play in a soccer field. the same for brito, who was the only vasco idol at that time. Piazza was traditionaly a d-mid, but zagallo put him in center back only to playu 70's cup.
Brito was OK at times but on most other occassions he was very sloppy. Leandro and Oscar were good on the ball but the latter was weak defensively. Maybe in the Brazilian league, he was more solid but I haven't seen footage of them play at club level.
I've seen you say this quite often, but I really don't understand why. Berti was a very good player, he was one of my favourites in the early 90s. He was versatile, could play left side of midfield or in the centre, was good on the ball as well.
yeah dor02 has always been a big Berti hater. Even though I'm a Milan fan and Berti is an Inter symbol he was a really good player. He was like an older version of Simone Perrotta, but with better finishing ability.
I base my claims on what I've seen of him with the Azzurri. I'll admit, I do give harsh opinions on him and if possible, I should try to watch his earlier Inter performances because some posters have said he was a good player in his younger days (though I don't find it easy watching Inter wins). He was a workhorse but whenever he had the ball, he was very clumsy (my dad tells me that during his Inter days, he was a bit of ball-hog too). He wasn't blessed with any great judgement so his ball usage was wasted more than other players. I like players like De Napoli, Antonio Conte, Dino Baggio and Perrotta more than him. What I'll give him credit for is that he did work hard (he won the ball that resulted in Beppe Signori assisting Baggio's wonder goal against Spain at USA 94) and he did score important goals for Inter. I just don't think he should have played for Italy for as many times as he did even if one of his plays did form a part of Baggio magic.
I agree 100% with all of that. At times he looked to be very much overmatched in Serie A and for the national team. Then he would make a great tackle and win the ball and start a counterattack. I always thought of him as mostly unimpressived but pretty effective, something like Filippo Inzaghi, a player who succeeded on a little ability and a lot of "grinta".
That pretty much sums things up. He had his moments but at other times, he was either unappealing, ineffective or both.
Good observation. I wouldn't call Zidane THE weak link in those Juve teams, but he was definitely a Raul-like underachieving passenger in those maddening CL flameouts.